The Poughkeepsie City School District Board of Education met last week to discuss career academy proposals that have been presented to Superintendent Laval Wilson.
Wilson said a committee of community members will rate and review the proposals, which will offer students an opportunity to explore career possibilities through the school’s planned academy program.
“If we have four (proposals), they’ll be exposed to all four,” Wilson said. He hopes to have four academies up and running for the 2008-09 school year.
Wilson said one of major goals of the career academy is to encourage the current ninth grade academy to prepare for seven of the proposals the board selects from for next year.
At the March 26 meeting, board member Randall Johnson questioned how the proposals are selected for the high school.
“My impression of these academies is to help our young people become established so we can help them out in the workforce. I see some of this stuff that doesn’t exist in Poughkeepsie, but maybe some of this exists in Westchester or Rockland counties,” said Johnson, who noted that a lot of current students love music and communications.
Wilson said there is a design, arts and media proposal which might include such subjects. He also said that while his staff couldn’t write the proposals, a panel of people from the business community spoke to school officials about specific career areas.
According to Wilson, the review committee is comprised of one student, a representative from the Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce, a representative from the Board’s Citizens Advisory Committee, a high school Parent/Teacher Student Association member, two central office representatives and a teacher.
The proposals are evaluated with 10 items ranked on a scale of 1-5, and a board workshop is scheduled for April 9 as an opportunity for the public to listen to and critique summaries of the proposals. Wilson said he hopes to transfer the documents onto the Internet for review as well.
Board member Greg Charter asked if a survey had been done to allow students input into what courses they would like to see offered, and Wilson said none had been conducted so far.
“It’s good to get one student’s perspective (noting the panel member), but it would be good to do a survey of a bunch of students,” Charter said.
Charter reminded everyone that not all students pursue the same goals beyond high school.
“Not everybody’s made out for college,” he said, noting trades such as electrical work or plumbing, inquiring about whether programs such as these would be offered.
Board president Raymond Duncan said that Dutchess County Board of Cooperative Educational Services is currently slotted in the upcoming budget for occupational education, but wasn’t sure of its exact amount.
With the state budget still not finalized as of press time, the district is uncertain about available funding.
Poughkeepsie High School students also attended the meeting in droves, as roughly 50 students packed the district administration meeting room.
“I enjoyed the part where they discussed the budget,” said senior Isaiah Smith, a music enthusiast and performer, who was in attendance as a requirement for his participation in government class, one of two meetings assigned by teacher Nathan Lawrence.
What greatly impacts Smith are the career academy proposals, he said.
He said the “Culinary” and “Arts and Media” proposals interest him, since he loves making food and is a trombonist in the high school jazz band.
He said he plans on studying music in college.